In 2024, the Tibetan Nuns Project asked for help to purchase hundreds of English, math, science, and general knowledge textbooks. Thank you to everyone who helped by textbooks for seven Tibetan Buddhist nunneries in northern India!
Here is a report with photos and news from each nunnery. All book came from Collins India.
Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute
Dolma Ling Nunnery, the largest nunnery supported by the Tibetan Nuns Project, is home to about 270 nuns. The nuns and their teachers received these 274 new textbooks in May 2024 thanks to kind donors. The teachers needed books for higher-level grades plus grammar and composition books.
In May, the Dolma Ling nuns received 274 new textbooks thanks to your generosity.
By educating and empowering these dedicated women, you are helping create a new generation of teachers and leaders that we desperately need in these troubled, chaotic times.
Sakya College for Nuns
Home to about 50 nuns, Sakya College of Nuns near Dehradun, is a place where Sakya nuns can pursue Buddhist studies for up to 15 years, earning the highest degrees in the Sakya tradition. Here are some photos taken by the nuns.
Nuns at Sakya College for Nuns with their new textbooks
Geden Choeling Nunnery
At Geden Choeling, the oldest nunnery in Dharamsala, the 200 nuns and their teachers are excited to have good sets of books. Geden Choeling’s abbot wants the nuns to learn math, but until now the nunnery didn’t have any math textbooks. Generous donors enabled the nunnery to order these 362 textbooks. Like all Tibetans, the nuns have a deep respect for books and the printed word. As soon as the books arrived, the nuns made plastic covers to protect them and make them last longer.
Nuns at Geden Choeling nunnery carefully protect their new textbooks. Tibetans have a deep respect for books. Photo by the Dolma Ling Media Nuns.
Shugsep Nunnery and Institute
Eight boxes containing 369 textbooks were delivered in May to Shugsep Nunnery and Institute, home to about 100 nuns. The Shugsep nuns needed math, science, and English grammar and composition books. The English teacher asked for help to improve the nunnery’s collection of English textbooks so the students could complete coursework up to Grade 8. The nunnery’s last big purchase of books was many years ago and those books were so well-loved and used that they were falling apart.
Nuns at Dolma Ling using some of the new textbooks. A single book can transform hundreds of lives over the years and we are very grateful to the donors who funded the textbooks. Photo by the Dolma Ling Media Nuns.
Sherab Choeling Nunnery
In mid-June we received these wonderful photos from the nuns at Sherab Choeling Nunnery as they got their six big boxes of textbooks.
Six big boxes of textbooks arrived! Women and girls from remote Himalayan areas like Spiti are traditionally given far less education than men and boys. The Tibetan Nuns Project helps support the nunnery’s 17-year study program.
Sherab Choeling Nunnery in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh was founded in 1995 with the vision to educate Himalayan Buddhist nuns who would otherwise have no opportunity to receive any formal schooling or spiritual education. It is a non-sectarian nunnery that recognizes the beauty and value in all Buddhist traditions.
Dorjee Zong Nunnery
Because Dorjee Zong is so remote – in Zanskar in the Indian Himalayas – it was last nunnery to receive the textbooks. The books were hand-delivered by a team from the Tibetan Nuns Project who travelled from Dharamsala to see the nuns and inspect the expansion project there.
textbooks for Dorjee Zong Nunnery in Zanskar
Tilokpur Nunnery
The textbook order for Tilokpur Nunnery has been placed and includes a series of books called Cherry Blossoms for the new class of 15 young nuns who joined the nunnery this spring. Tilokpur nunnery has one English teacher who teaches all eight classes so she is pretty busy but most appreciative of the books.
The mission of the Tibetan Nuns Project is to educate and empower nuns of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as teachers and leaders; and to establish, strengthen, and support educational institutions to preserve the Tibetan religion and culture. Photo by the Dolma Ling Media Nuns.
The books for Sakya College for Nuns are being purchased soon. The textbooks for Dorjee Zong Nunnery in the remote area of Zanskar will be purchased this summer and brought there. We’ll report on these in the fall.
Boxes of new textbooks for Tibetan Buddhist nunneries.
Meanwhile, the Tibetan Nuns Project will continue to work with all seven of the nunneries to establish good library practices and to have library time for informal reading of fiction and non-fiction books. Dolma Ling library is functioning well and the nuns regularly borrow books and read them. The teachers at Shugsep Nunnery will bring their classes to the library and display a range of books so the students can look through them easily and choose what they would like to read.
Nuns at Tilokpur. Traditionally Tibetan Buddhist nuns have not had equal access to education. The textbooks will help educate and empower the nuns to become teachers and leaders.
Photos from May 2024 taken by Robin Groth showing some of the new textbooks in use at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute.